Alina was born
in Bucharest, Romania, and on her way to immigrating to Canada she and
her parents have lived in Israel and Greece. Alina has very strong cultural
ties to both the Romanian and Middle Eastern cultures, in constant contact
with her family in those areas of the world. Alina has traveled to Romania
and the Middle East many times, though no matter how long she stays or
how often she visits, it's never enough.

Alina
started her first ballet class at the age of 5, and continued with a variety
of other dance and movement classes throughout her school years; jazz,
modern, ballroom, various folk dance classes, gymnastics and drama. As
Alina developed as a dancer she has gone on to more challenging and rewarding
forms of dance, always craving to learn more. Alina's largest influences
by far have come from ballet (which she has taken for the longest period
of time) and from Romanian folk dancing with the Balada Romanian Folk
Dance Ensemble (which she has been consistently involved with since 1990).
The Romanian dance maestros that Alina has studied with include; E. Ann
Smreciu, Theodor & Lia Vasilescu, Ionel
Garoafa, Marin Stârcu, Sonia Dion & Cristian Florescu, and
Viorel Vatamaniuc.

Alina has been a professional
belly dancer since 1999, studying with Anemone Ruder (Isis Dance Productions
Ltd.), Bozenka, Farasha, Hadia, Sabura, and Samourah. Alina has also had the honour
to dance regularly to live music provided by local and guest musicians
including; Ahmad Omar, Mohammed Al Mowed, Saeed Al Mowed, "Ahmed
the drummer", Amin Le Ain and Rima Chamas.